Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen pitched seven innings of one-run ball and Liu Fu-hao homered for the 10th time this year as the Uni--President Lions edged past the Brother Elephants in a 2-1 thriller at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
It was a big win for the defending champions, not only in the sense that they closed out the final home game of an otherwise disappointing season on a high note after failing to earn a post-season berth for the first time in five years, but also because it was the 100th career victory for Du Du, who became the fastest player to reach the century mark in only his eighth season (207 games).
“I am glad that it [picking up his 100th career win] is finally out of the way because I would not want to wait until next year,” Du Du said after the game.
As for Liu, the solo blast that he launched over the left-field wall in the bottom of the fifth for his 10th homer of the year proved to be the difference in the game and it gave the speedy outfielder double-digit homers for the second straight season.
The showdown between Du Du and Elephants starter Huang Jia-ming lived up to the hype as neither offense managed to break through for a score through to the third inning, with Pan and Huang allowing only three hits between them, but the Lions’ clutch hitting finally got to Huang in the fourth as Chen Lien-hong and Kao Chih-kang came through with a double and a single with two outs respectively to give their team a 1-0 lead.
After Liu’s two-out homer in the fifth made it 2-0, the visiting Elephants responded in the seventh by scoring their first run of the game off Du Du on Wang Sheng-wei’s RBI triple.
That was as close as they got as Du Du calmly struck out the next batter to strand the tying run on third, before his bullpen took over with a scoreless eighth and ninth to preserve the win.
Bulls 6, Bears 3
The Sinon Bulls doubled up on the La New Bears at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium yesterday.
Starter Lin Ying-jeh improved to 9-7 for the year with the win, allowing no runs on four hits over five frames.
He received plenty of run support with an offense that connected for a pair of runs in the fifth inning, the sixth and the seventh to spot him a 6-0 lead.
Even though the Bears would fight back and score three in the bottom of the ninth off Bulls reliever Yu Wen-bin, denying the Bulls the shutout win, the outcome of the game was never in doubt when Yu buckled down to close out the game without further damage.
Today’s game sees the Sinon Bulls take on the Brother Elephants in Taoyuan at 6:35pm.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in